Afterlife: Vladimir Tomin

With the release of 'Afterlife', we took an opportunity to interview Tomin Vladimir (Myaka) who has made many wonderful contributions since joining the group.

Saad Moosajee:
Hello Myaka, congratulations on being slashTHREE's second featured artist! A lot of our viewers have most likely seen your brilliant contributions to Afterlife, and are wondering about you. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Tomin Vladimir:
Ok, my minute of happy jumping is over, I’m ready for the interview! About myself? Hm, I’m living in small city in far east Russia and have a diploma as an IT specialist. I worked for 2 years on a local tv station as a designer (I hated computers after 5 years of torturing IT education), after that 2 years in production studio (www.peppers.ru) as a video designer. I started making art in the summer of 2007 (here is my first work if interested http://www.myaki.ru/pics/pic12.jpg).

Saad Moosajee:
1 year on the art scene is astounding for your level. One of the most stunning things about all your work is the level of conceptualism, it is clear that the concept of Afterlife was one you enjoyed. Did you have any sort of inspiration when selecting your concepts?

Tomin Vladimir:
I have my Muse – my girlfriend Katya (also known as Chococat). She has no connection to Afterlife but she was the one who inspired me to start making art and she's still my one and only Muse, no matter that theme of works is. But, I must say, afterlife was a VERY cool playground for my twisted mind!

Saad Moosajee:
That's a very good source of inspiration! Speaking of inspiration, do you value your work's aesthetics more over concepts? In other words, did you plan out each piece precisely, or did you 'go with the flow' and build your concept as you went along?

Tomin Vladimir:
Ok, here is how it works: first, I’m thinking out the base concept, and this is time consuming process. Then, I’m taking paper and making brief sketch, thinking of composition here. Then, I’m actually making my picture into the digital world. When I see my result, if it satisfies me – it’s done. If not – concept-thinking is back. You see, it’s really important to add things not just randomly. My main goal is to make a eye-and-brain-catching picture, with all elements working together, MAINLY, on concept.

Saad Moosajee:
One of the other things which makes your work stand out so much is you unique and fresh style. Some would classify it as a mixed media style (referring to your drawing + digital images style e.g. moot soul). How did you come about creating this style and is this your favorite style? Were any other fine artists or digital art instrumental in helping you to develop this style?

Tomin Vladimir:
I liked to draw with pencil when I was a child. I haven't used a pencil for a while since that time. As a mentioned before, in summer 2007 I started making digital art. It was all about photo manipulations. But soon I realized that not always you can find a photo for your idea, and it restricted me a lot. I personally don’t like restrictions. And here I took a pencil in my hand again. But when I scanned it as is, it VISUALLY was not as interesting as my photo manipulation works, so I decided to apply my photomanip techniques to my pencil work. This is how it worked out. Here is my first work in this style: http://www.myaki.ru/pics/pic40.jpg

Saad Moosajee:
That is a very unique style. How long would you say an average piece would take you? From start to finish.

Tomin Vladimir:
Thinking out main idea could take 5 minutes – 1 day. Drawing outlines is something like 2 – 6 hours depending on complexity. Shadowing takes 1-4 hours. Photoshop cutting, composing and post-proc usually takes 1 day for first result, and several hours on next day to fix bugs and fine tune. So average piece is gonna take something like 2-3 days.

Saad Moosajee:
A long time indeed, if this is how long a drawing takes, how long would it take to compose a video then ( fully illustrated) like Tree of Death? Is it a similar process?

Tomin Vladimir:
Video design is totally different thing. It's SO MUCH MORE complicated. Thinking out the main idea is only ¼th of the preparation process. You should think out the storyline, how well different scenes fits together, dynamics, everything. Even camera works takes a lot of time. I spent 5 full days on making Tree of Death.

Saad Moosajee:
The five days were sure worth it though! Do you have any suggestions to our readers out there who are looking to increase their technical skill level?

Tomin Vladimir:
Place your works on forums such as slashTHREE's, HEAR what people saying about your work and try to make it better. It REALLY helps! And try to work in style you’re really comfortable with. It’s pretty much like singing – voice sounds beautiful when no force applied, like one Freddy Mercury had. Everything should go out from you in NATURAL way, don’t force it.

Saad Moosajee:
We can see that your skill in traditional art is as high as your skill in digital art, but have you ever thought about pursuing a career in fine art? In other words, which world are you more interested in, the one of fine art or digital art?

Tomin Vladimir:
Video design for sure or if I have to choose between those two, digital art.

Saad Moosajee:
What particular aspect of digital art interests you so much?

Tomin Vladimir:
Time saving; I'm not ready to spend 10 years on one pic.

Saad Moosajee:
Ah. If you don't mind now, we're going to ask you a few short, random questions, and we want you to say the first thing that comes to mind.

Saad Moosajee:
Coke or Pepsi?

Tomin Vladimir:
Coke

Saad Moosajee:
Would you rather attend an Opera or go shopping with your wife/girlfriend?

Tomin Vladimir:
Neither please

Saad Moosajee:
Blonds or brunettes?

Tomin Vladimir:
Brunettes without questions

Saad Moosajee:
Favorite place in the world to be?

Tomin Vladimir:
Tokyo

Saad Moosajee:
Favorite sport?

Tomin Vladimir:
Boxing

Saad Moosajee:
Would you rather ride a bicycle or drive a gas guzzler?

Tomin Vladimir:
All I wanna do is bicycle.

Saad Moosajee:
Which pieces are your favorite from Afterlife, both from you and everyone else?

Tomin Vladimir:
Hard to choose really. Afterlife by mOsk, Ruthless by Enjin, Skin of the Night by ishbu; My favorite work by myself is Tree of Death

Saad Moosajee:
And finally.. If you could be doing any other thing possible in the world right now what would it be?

Tomin Vladimir:
Flying like Peter Petrelly (Heroes TV series)

Saad Moosajee:
Is there anyone you would like to give a shoutout to?

Tomin Vladimir:
Christian Rivera (aka Rudo), Jesus Pamplona, and of course Peppers Studio who made us feel at home sweet home

Saad Moosajee:
Well, Myaka, it was a great pleasure to interview you, as well as viewing your excellent submissions to Afterlife. On behalf of all of the slashTHREE staff I would like to congratulate you on being our featured artist! Keep up the good work!